Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Valentines day article

When most people think about Valentine's day, they think of heart shaped boxes of chocolates and roses and most other "mushy-gushy" things. But, truth is, not everyone likes that kind of stuff. What first comes to mind on February 14th, is romance. But there are people out there who don't experience romance, or even want to. These type of people are called aromantic.
Aromantics are people who experience little to no romantic attraction; Where as most other people have an emotional need to be with another person in a romantic relationship. Aromantic people are often satisfied with friendships and other non-romantic relationships. Although, this doesn't prelude them from feeling other forms of love or attraction. "Many other forms of substantial and beneficial relationships with others can be formed" Rachel Wolfe said ", such as friendships, the bond you may have with family, or a pet, etc."
Romance is a feeling that most people experience, especially on Valentine's day. Romance is the expressive and, in some cases, pleasurable feeling from an emotional attraction towards another person associated with love. It usually implies an expression of a deep and strong emotional desire to connect with another person intimately or romantically. The term "romance" actually originates from the medieval idea of chivalry as it was portrayed in its romantic literature.
When asked, Rachel Wolfe said "Romanticism, at its core, was a movement in the 18th century focusing heavily on the concepts of human emotions in a wide array, mostly very strong emotions such as love, terror, bravery. The time period is also where a strong sense of 'romancing' other beings came into play, the emphasis on these feelings and enacting the wooing of other people."
Another form of romanticism that people may not know of, is demiromanticism. Aromanticism and demiromanticism are the big two, there are plenty of other stem offs as well. Demiromantics are people who only experience romantic attractions or feelings towards someone after a strong bond has been formed.
Where most romantics can elicit romance to their partner almost immediately, demiromantics cannot do so right away. When I asked a friend, Clifford Anderson, what he knew about demiromantics, he had said "I think it's a moderate amount of romance being shown." Showing that the average person knows little to nothing about these kinds of orientations.
There are plenty of other terms as well. Such as lithromantics, grey-romantics, queerplatonics, and more; they are all people who experience different types of romantic attractions, if any at all.
"I consider Valentine's Day being highly bastardized. These days it is merely a corporate holiday targeting the evolved ideals from the romanticism era and morphing them into a highly monetized concept of spending exorbitant amounts of money on partners for this singular day, almost a competition if you will, of who can spend the most money on the most lavish displays of affection through material gain." Rachel said, after I had asked her what she thought Valentine's day was about. On the other hand, Cliff had said it was "a day to do something nice for the one you love." There are a spectrum of people who think and feel different things on Valentine's day, and they should all be acknowledged and respected.